Let me ask you a big question that has an obvious answer: Would you like to be happy?
If your answer is, “Yes, I would like to be happy, fulfilled, and have peace and contentment…in spite of all the problems that come against me,” then read on.
I believe I have an answer for you on HOW to be happy, and how to bring happiness to others. I want to talk to you about a life changing experience. Others have found this experience, and in discovering it they have found happiness.
I remember a famous football player of days gone by, that most all of you know. His name is Rosie Grier, and he’s a dear friend of mine. Rosie Grier said one time when he was playing at the Los Angeles Coliseum that right in the middle of a big game he suddenly looked around in the stands at the 75 to 80,000 people, and he thought, “year after year I’ve been doing this, and there’s got to be more to life than this! There just must be more!”
He found that there was more. He found the Lord Jesus Christ. He found fulfillment and happiness. Now his whole life is lived to share his happiness with others.
I want to talk to you right now about being “born again.” Who knows more about you than anyone else? Who knows more about your life than anyone else? Obviously, the One who made you.
I’m talking about God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. What does it really mean to be “born again?” It’s not just a remodeling job. It’s not something you can do for yourself.
Today we hear a lot about recycling, and we hear a lot about reconstruction and reshaping. We renovate houses. We add on more rooms, and we tear down old buildings; we build new ones in our cities, and we call it urban renewal.
Millions and millions of dollars are spent every year on health spas, beauty resorts, on all kinds of exotic cosmetics, and it’s spent by people who are hoping to reshape their faces, or renew their bodies.
In the same manner, people frantically pursue all sorts of promised cures for the renewal of the inner life. Some people hunt for renewal at the psychiatrist’s office. Others search for spiritual renewal in some kind of oriental religion; other people search for renewal through some type of inward meditation.
Still others seek for inner peace and renewal in drugs and alcohol. Whatever the path, they eventually come to a dead end…and here’s the big question…WHY? Why doesn’t any of this satisfy them?
It’s simple when you think about it. It’s simple because man cannot renew himself. God created us. Only God can recreate us. Only God can give us the new birth that we are desperately needing and wanting, whether we realize it or not.
